"This pudding has no theme"

[Charles Doyle]

Date: Tue 17 Jul 15:06:59 EDT 2007
From: Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu>

I suppose we must regard "The proof is in the pudding" as a proverb in its own right; it finds a slightly whopping 297,000 raw Google hits. Google Books shows an 1863 occurrence in a work by Henry Dircks, _Joseph Anstey_ (335). (The date is right for that author).

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:07:51 +0100
>From: Michael Quinion <wordseditor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG>
>Subject: Re: "This pudding has no theme" (Winston Churchill?)
>
>Laurence Horn asked:
>
>> Then there's the question of proof.  I wonder at what point "The proof of the pudding is in the eating" turned into the rather more opaque "The proof is in the pudding"...


>
>I've found an example that shows it's far from recent:
>
>1928 Decatur Herald (Decatur, Illinois) 5 Aug. 3/4 'Proof is in the pudding' that a successful tennis court need not be a grass court nor even a clay court, when a cinder covered playground is available.
>
>
>
>--
>Michael Quinion

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